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Friday, September 27, 2013

While accolades are going Anthony Chen's and Ilo Ilo's way, there's another award winning film that's just been released and screening at The Arts House under its Frame X Frame banner. Producer-Director-Writer Wong Chen-hsi received Best Director at the Asian New Talent Award at last year's Shanghai International Film Festival, and like Ilo Ilo, the film finally found its way home from the overseas festival circuit, for local audiences to savour and celebrate its acclaimed success with our homegrown talent.

But unlike Ilo Ilo's context and story, which is by far the more accessible and powerful one, Innocents turned out to be a rather abstract affair, dealing with loneliness and the ostracizing of children who by chance, found their way to each other's company despite early animosity and difference, to fiercely forge a firm friendship between them cemented by a secret shared, which like all good things, rarely last. But therein lies the issue with Innocents because it didn't really allow for a genuine audience connection with the children involved, accompanying them in their growing pains, and this made it easy to turn off especially when scenes seemed to be over-indulging in its capture of beautiful green scenery, and other carefully composed shots.

The opening shot with its widescreen aspect ratio presentation throughout, is set to wow with its first impressions, and the technical details were nothing less than top notch. Images were engineered to be postcard picturesque especially when it had to do with the wide outdoors of natural forest and foliage, cut through by railway track (now defunct) and concrete monsoon drain, all of which serve as the truancy playground for the primary schoolchildren of Syafiqah (Nameera Ashley) and Huat (Cai Chengyue). Which seemed to go on almost forever for half the film, while at the same time peppering the narrative with suggestions of their troubled backgrounds. Their new found landscapes, hidden from the adult world that didn't seem to understand them, provide temporal relief and an avenue where they can just be kids, playing with water, catching fish, and hiking, but somehow the narrative started to languish, until the midpoint of a discovery that teased, but frankly didn't get developed.

It was a little bit peculiar that the context, time and places can't be deliberately pin-pointed in the film. It can only be assumed it's set in Singapore (although frankly it could be anywhere in and around Malaysia for a shot of a KTM map) - the only giveaway was the old currency used - with its kampung house complete with leaky rooftops, contrasted with high rise HDB flats. But other issues like the way buses operate, threw this assumption off track from time to time. And to work around its budget, an excellent sound design by Vincent Tang compensated for the visuals, or lack thereof, for instance, cueing us that it's a full fledged, busy school, when what can be mustered for the screen showed otherwise. Cinematographer Joseph White also had a hand in making the film look gorgeous for the most parts, but once you're past all the technical brilliance, you're left on your own to seek out that soul which was conspicuously absent.

For a while, the story felt like My Neighbour Totoro done live-action style in some parts, with the kids going off playing in a little wonderworld of greenery, oblivious to time and space, and even had to depend on a private bus as transportation to and from locations. But it is not all fun and games as the story starkly contrasted some unreal situations, at least when seen today, where teachers can no longer be tyrants and hold the final word in class. It's yet another clue this may have been set in yesteryear, as any educator can attest to the losing of jobs should anyone raise hell the way the teacher did as portrayed in this film. And the story wastes no time in demonizing most of the adults save for one science teacher, while most of the male students got shoe-boxed as bullies who make life difficult for Huat.

One hardly gets a Malay girl in a local film as a leading protagonist (the last film that did that was perhaps Marc X Grigoroff's Salawati back in 2008), and here, Nameera Ashley provides a doe-eyed, smart lass portrayal in her Syafiqah, undoubtedly the dutiful good student who knows her stuff, and doesn't stand for any nonsense from anyone. And Cai Chengyue plays her opposite number as the unkempt boy who persistently comes to class late, which makes his teacher constantly tear her hair out, and exasperated by his couldn't-care-less attitude. One's a newly transfered student, while the other is the resident troubled boy, and it's no sooner that both find some common ground and connection to each other.

However, it is their scenes together where they say nothing at all, except to let their actions do the talking, that worked. Otherwise what made this movie seem a little bit artificial, is the quality of the dialogues, which contain too much polish that you would not expect to have come out from children. Not to diss them as incapable of doing so, but the sentences that came out of both children, seemed to be nothing more than elaborate mouthpieces for the storyteller, with the kids seemingly spouting lines that were comfortable for a stage play, but being really out of place and awkward for something on film. The intent may be to show that the kids were more mature in their thinking and actions when it came to the big picture, while the adults were petty and unreasonable, but it's a pity that this didn't get naturally coaxed out from the performers, making scenes look too engineered, rote, and lifeless.

Innocents may be a visual feast, but it isn't something that's already not seen before in a local film, with similar prominent landscapes already covered in quite detail through an early film in Liao Jiekai's Red Dragonflies. Narratively it didn't manage to cement emotional depths for connection with its leading characters, and the story sort of gave way toward its final third when left to the devices of a solo character to lead the charge. If it was more direct and bold with its intent, rather than to leave it as an open end, then perhaps it would have provided the film with that edge it sorely needed. Still, it's an A for technical effort, if only it had a story with a stronger emotional core to back it up. Singapore's top supporting actor Lim Poh Huat is in the film as well, though you don't get too see or recognize him much in the movie until the end credits roll.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Who would have guessed that Singapore's film of the moment, and possibly of this year, has its English title refer to a location outside of the little red dot, a city that was never even mentioned in the film. And this was also the case for its Chinese title, although the phrase was possibly the key reason why its youngest key character got up to his shenanigans for the most parts, reflecting a social norm for double income families in the city state, where kids are often left growing up under the watchful eyes of domestic workers instead.

We had to wait until some 7 years after Singapore Dreaming, before another powerful local family drama get to grace our screens, a genre few filmmakers dare touch, since it may be perceived that Singaporeans dislike holding that mirror up at ourselves, or that it's easier to satire or poke fun at some social issues through comedy for the masses, which most of the lucrative local film releases here fall under. And here came writer-director Anthony Chen, already a trailblazing short film filmmaker, who showed his maturity as a storyteller, combining narrative eloquence with deft, effective techniques to tell a personal tale set against an historical background, much like a combination of his best known shorts Ah Ma, a Cannes Special Mention previously that centered around grieving family members, and Haze, which had the environmental hazard serve as the backdrop of a "Ba Ma Bu Zai Jia" situation.

To be honest I had some doubts when Ilo Ilo's trailer premiered, thinking that we could be staring down Singapore Dreaming Part Deux given perceived similarities in cast and some subject matter, even as the film moved along, such as how lottery still found its way to the plot (as did most other local films to varying degrees), and an expectant mother character that actress Yeo Yann Yann plays, although this time it was for real with the actress pregnant, and had it worked into the plot by the filmmaker. And my suspicion that this could be Tokyo Sonata, with the father figure losing his job, and other very personal story arcs revolving around the other key characters, got blown away as soon as the film entered its initial minutes, that this was already something different, and groundbreaking in the making as far as local films are concerned.

As it turned out, this is Anthony's labour of love, and the tremendous attention to detail was simply amazing, though not perfect (but what is?), with its art direction to immerse the viewer into knowing we're in the mid 90s without the need for an obvious marker until mid way. Electronic devices such as the Tamagochi game which was quite the rage in its time, ubiquitous pagers, and Sony's walkman all serve to remind us of a time where we got by without feeling the need to be online all the time. And from these little gadgets, come the darting of one's eyes to a lot more clues of time, from costuming right down to wide angled shots where I just had to find something out of place, but rarely did (I admit I nodded when a wide shot of a school hall had the correct President and First Lady picture hung up, something which could have been easily overlooked, amongst other things such as the model used for a police car).

But it is economical filmmaking in a sense, yet big in ambition to tell a story that can, and has proven, to resonate with audiences around the world. Most of the scenes take place in family HDB apartment, or the school, and any other outdoor shots were meticulously scouted and could have made the Old Places team proud, especially when we're modernizing our landscapes at a frightening pace. And the cinematography exploits tight spaces in lieu of avoiding getting something out of place into the frame, yet through its technical constraints came an intimate portrait through tight shots and intricate framing.

What I really liked about the film is how effortlessly the narrative flowed, without the director feeling the urge to be verbose about everything, preferring set ups to be resolved naturally at a later stage, with the film taking its time to evolve rather than pushing its pace to a rush, reining in any attempt to be overly ambitious in trying to cover everything, catalyzed from the introduction of a stranger into a family's life. And on top of that, giving each character crafted their strong, personal story arcs whose challenges one can surely feel for since they touch raw nerves from an unforgettable 90s era.

The Singapore Dreaming connection cannot be stronger than with Yeo Yann Yann's presence playing a pregnant mom in a family drama. One of the actresses at the top of her craft plying her trade on both sides of the Causeway, it is needless to say her sheer acting prowess shone through a role that required her to respond to threats, where her character had to witness the erosion of her bond with her son who slowly but surely begin to forge a stronger one with their family maid. And if that's not challenging the actress enough, her role also deals with the albatross of retrenchment starkly happening in the local small and medium enterprise her motherly character works for, and finding belief through self-help materials.

I've never thought much about Chen Tianwen as an actor since his television days, but it's a testament to the director's ability to elicit the best performance possible from his cast, and it's indeed a revelation that this actor could act, if given the right role, and having his ability coaxed right out of him. While the character had to disappear for a bit toward the last act, his Mr Lim stood for how the typical father would under dire circumstances, speaking little, and digging deep from within to weather the storm, picking up any job to tide through tough times. If you, like me before who is unconvinced by Chen Tianwen's acting abilities, you're in for a huge and pleasant surprise.

Fans of Lav Diaz's films would be no stranger to Angeli Bayani, who plays Teresa/Terry the maid, and nailed her role through and through as the dutiful servant with a mind of her own, standing up for herself from the onset when bullied. Leaving her family and young son behind, the character echoes many of those under similar circumstances, having to come to our island to look after someone else's kid instead, while at the same time bearing witness to the secrets each household owns. And rounding up the principle cast members is Koh Jia Ler as the young kid of the Lim family Jiale, a rascal of a kid, spoilt in a sense, and being the bane of Teresa at the start. Ilo Ilo has their story arcs central to everything else happening around them, and the chemistry between these two performers was one of the highlights of the movie, as we journey through their changes in attitudes that gave way to mutual respect, and love. Probably the child actor at the moment, having to co-shoulder the weight of the film on his shoulders as the unlikely antagonist who jump starts situations.

Ilo Ilo is a subtle, sensitive film, boiled down to a filmmaker's maturity and strength in peppering plenty of life's observations, combined with personal experiences, poured into a melting pot full of heart. Amongst the local film releases this year, this one is a refreshing change to the usual faces seen on screen, dealing with themes that will definitely strike a chord, which when stripped down, points to desires in enriching oneself for various reasons altruistic or otherwise, yet even more keenly felt during poor economic conditions, through methods that are hard and patient, or through short cuts that are illegal, fashioned after self-styled self-help gurus.

Anthony Chen has thrown the gauntlet down for local filmmakers to raise their own bars in filmmaking, leading the charge of the next generation of filmmakers who have their unique vision and stories to tell. It's rare in our filmmaking community to find storytellers who straddle between art house and commercial films, but Ilo Ilo shows that a combination of both is possible. So while the film continues to make waves overseas, and prestigious, international awards aside, there's nothing but true testament for any filmmaker, than for audiences in the home country to respond to the film in a show of support through a ticket. And it's not blind promotion - Ilo Ilo is the best local film to hit our shores this year, and perhaps in recent years, that it deserves as wide an audience as it can get from Singapore. You'll laugh, cry and will invariably be moved. A definite recommend!

P.S. it's been playing for some time already in cinemas, and now it's reduced to limited screenings, so catch it before it disappears from the big screens. This is one movie that has enough reserves in its tank to appeal to a broad spectrum of society, and I'm heartened to have noticed from my evening screening, families turning up in droves to lend support, and emerging satisfied with such a fine film when the lights get turned on.

About Me

I'm a Singapore based film buff and a keen supporter of Singapore films good and bad. I've been writing about Singapore Cinema and Singapore film-related activities since 2005. I am also a contributing writer at movieXclusive.com, TwitchFilm.net, and Sinema.sg.